CADNA Commends Chairman Leahy and the Senate Judiciary Committee for Passing the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act Out of Committee

November 19, 2010

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) applauds the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for passing the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act out of committee yesterday. Sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and 17 others, the bill seeks to put an end to online content that infringes on intellectual property, such as websites pirating copyrighted material and selling counterfeit goods, by working with registrars, Internet service providers, and payment processors within the United States. CADNA now encourages the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the global organization that sets policy for the Internet’s naming and addressing system, to supplement the Senate’s work by including in its policies provisions that will similarly prevent infringement and counterfeiting outside of the U.S.’s jurisdictional reach.

“If implemented, Senator Leahy’s bill will fairly and efficiently end access to content that infringes upon others’ intellectual property here in the U.S.,” CADNA President Josh Bourne said. “But IP infringement is not limited to the U.S. As this is a worldwide problem, we now look to ICANN to step up and address these issues on a global scale.”

Prior to today’s committee meeting, CADNA reached out to Senator Leahy with a letter of support commending the bill for encouraging freedom of expression and progress while ensuring that innovation does not result in loopholes for counterfeiting and infringing sites. The Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act protects U.S. economic interests by ensuring that only the rightful owners of copyrighted materials can distribute them online and by preventing piracy and counterfeiting of their intellectual property by unauthorized parties. Protecting U.S. intellectual property is vital to the success and sustainability of the U.S. economy, and so CADNA urges Congress to pass the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act into law before the conclusion of the 111th Congress.

The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the systemic domain name abuses that plague the Internet today. For more information, please visit www.cadna.org.